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City of London · EC4Y

Worktop replacement in Temple

Taking out a tired laminate worktop and fitting stone on the units you already have, in a single day.

  • 5.0from 23 Google reviews
  • 25-year material · 5-year workmanship
  • Fitted 3-7 working days from template

Temple kitchens

What the kitchens here are actually like

Inn of Court chambers building with residential setslisted brick range around a courtpostwar rebuild in period stylesmall flat within a legal building

Lath and plaster, a settled floor and a hall with a turn in it are the three things that decide how this job runs. Old top out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon, with a plumber either side of us. A single day, planned properly.

Residential sets within the Inns have small kitchens fitted into rooms that were never designed for them, typically a 1.8-2.6m run against a chimney breast or under a sash window, with wiring and plumbing surface-run in trunking. Everything is a careful retrofit rather than a design exercise, and stone is chosen for a hard-wearing surface in a heritage room rather than for a statement island.

The Temple is a private, gated precinct with controlled vehicle entry, porters and its own rules, so access has to be arranged through the Inn's estates office rather than turned up to. Internally it is cobbles and setts in the courts, narrow historic stairs with worn stone treads, and listed joinery you cannot unhang. Worn stone stair treads are slippery and uneven, and a two-man carry on those with a slab on edge is where people get hurt - use a proper frame and take the extra body.

Wider halls make the carry noticeably easier, and that alone can remove a join that a narrower terrace would have forced into the run. In most Victorian terraces the kitchen sits in the back addition, so you get a narrow galley with one outside wall and nothing square to work off. What is under the old top is the real question.

The stock behind these kitchens runs to Inn of Court chambers building with residential sets, listed brick range around a court, postwar rebuild in period style and small flat within a legal building. Which of those you have decides most of what follows.

True everywhere

Worktop replacement, in short

  • The units stay. Only the surface changes.
  • Old tops come out in the morning, new stone is down and sealed the same day.
  • A plumber disconnects the tap and waste before we arrive and reconnects at the end of the day.
  • The carcasses have to be sound: stone is far heavier than laminate.

Covered on our the City run. Fitted 3–7 working days from template.

Victorian and Edwardian terraces

What gets asked for here

This is the job the local stock asks for first, ahead of worktop templating and worktop splashbacks & upstands.

Victorian and Edwardian terraces

The building, and what it does to the job

The addition wall is half a brick thick in places and has usually had a damp course injected and been re-plastered, which leaves it neither flat nor consistent. Lath-and-plaster and bowed brickwork mean we template for scribes rather than straight cuts, and each piece is offered up and eased in rather than dropped straight down. Sound carcasses are the one condition.

Victorian and Edwardian terraces

Getting stone into the room

Sign-in at the gate, a permit on the dash and a named contact are usually wanted before anything comes off the van. Worth remembering that the old tops have to come out the way the new ones come in, and a laminate run is easier to remove in one length than to carry in one. That is agreed before a plumber is booked.

Access

Getting stone into a Temple kitchen

The Temple is a private, gated precinct with controlled vehicle entry, porters and its own rules, so access has to be arranged through the Inn's estates office rather than turned up to. Internally it is cobbles and setts in the courts, narrow historic stairs with worn stone treads, and listed joinery you cannot unhang.

Tell us what the approach looks like when you book the template and it gets built into the day rather than discovered on it. Where the route is genuinely tight, it changes how the pieces are cut, which is a fabrication decision rather than a delivery one.

3–7 working days

From template to fitted, working days from template. The same on this patch as every other.

the City patch

Temple is covered on our the City run, along with the rest of the Square Mile.

We come to you

Templated in your kitchen, cut in our workshop, fitted by our own installers.

Access told straight

If the route forces an extra join, you hear that at quote stage, not on the day.

Questions

Worktop replacement in Temple

If yours is not here, ring and ask. You get a straight answer rather than a call-back from a salesperson.

Is Temple on your patch?

Yes. Temple is on the patch, and the postcodes we work here are EC4Y. It is worked on our the City run, along with the rest of the Square Mile. Where the van can pull up level with the gate the pieces are handled the fewest times, which is what actually protects them. Waste is the part people forget: the old laminate or tired granite has to be walked back to the van and it does not get lighter. It is a full day at the kerb, not a delivery. We template in your kitchen and fit in your kitchen, so there is nothing to visit and nothing to collect.

Why would worktop replacement in Temple be any different from anywhere else?

Worn stone stair treads are slippery and uneven, and a two-man carry on those with a slab on edge is where people get hurt - use a proper frame and take the extra body.

How would you get a worktop into a property in Temple?

The Temple is a private, gated precinct with controlled vehicle entry, porters and its own rules, so access has to be arranged through the Inn's estates office rather than turned up to. Internally it is cobbles and setts in the courts, narrow historic stairs with worn stone treads, and listed joinery you cannot unhang. Sign-in at the gate, a permit on the dash and a named contact are usually wanted before anything comes off the van. With no room to turn, the old top gets cut up in the kitchen instead, which is dusty work and needs the room emptied first. It sets what the day actually looks like.

Is Temple mostly worktop replacement work for you?

Yes. On the research for this patch it is the first of the three jobs listed, ahead of worktop templating and worktop splashbacks & upstands. Landlord work is scheduled around void periods, so the whole thing is a fixed window and the template date matters as much as the fitting date. Old tops out in the morning, new stone down and sealed the same afternoon. A plumber either side of us. Quartz suits let property well: no sealing, no annual maintenance, and nothing an incoming tenant has to be told to look after. The units stay and only the surface changes, so the whole job is one day rather than a kitchen refit. A day, not a project.

What moves the number on a quote around here?

Seating overhangs past roughly 300mm will not carry on the carcass alone, so flat steel bar or a plywood substrate has to be built into the units first. The existing layout is being kept, so the question is whether the old carcasses will take stone in that shape without more support. The units stay, the surface changes. Material is £110-£550 per square metre supply only, and templating, fabrication and fitting are quoted on their own lines.

What needs to be ready before you come to Temple?

The returns into a breast recess are the tightest scribes in the room, and they are eased in rather than forced. The old top has been hiding it, so the first honest look at it happens when the laminate comes off. Found at template, not on fit day. Have a plumber booked to disconnect the sink, tap and waste first thing and reconnect after we have gone, and clear the hallway and stairs completely so we can carry slabs through the house. A street with houses in single occupation next to the same houses cut into flats produces two completely different jobs from the same elevation. If the carcasses are tired the honest answer is that stone will find that out, and it is better said before than after. Sound carcasses are the condition.

Next step

Worktop replacement in Temple, priced properly

Plans, a sketch or photographs with rough run lengths is enough to start. You get an itemised written quote and the template dates we can offer on this patch.

25-year material warranty and a 5-year workmanship guarantee, both stated on your quote.

+44 7830 847489